blogging about life in hawaii, travels to italy, and a little bit of baseball now and then

a disturbing week of politics

I actually had hope that this election season would be different. McCain claimed that he would run an honorable campaign. McCain used to be (or so I have been told) a man of honor who loved his country. It seems to me that he has now sold his soul to win at any cost. He is now running one of the nastiest campaigns in recent history (or perhaps ever).

While our economy continues to collapse, the McCain campaign has resorted to inciting hatred and racism and possible violence. This is as low as it can get. It has been extremely disturbing to listen to what has been being said at the McCain and Palin rallies all week; both by the candidates and by the people at the rallies. How can McCain and Palin question Obama's character when they have allowed comments such as "kill him", "treason", "terrorist" "off with his head" to be shouted out at their rallies? Instead of doing anything, both McCain and Palin just stood there and allowed people to shout out these hateful and violent remarks.

After a week of these "hate rallies", McCain has finally stepped in today saying that Senator Obama "is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared about as President of the United States." McCain went on to say, "He's a decent, family man", and later said, "We will be respectful.” and he even said “I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments."

In my opinion it is too little too late. Hopefully both McCain and Palin will realize the hatred and divisiveness that they have created. If they have any sense of decency left at all, they will do the right thing and stop the lies and smears and get back to the issues that the country cares about before violence erupts.

McCain and Palin claim that Barack Obama doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about. I beg to differ. I am a regular person. My family and many of my friends and who support Obama are regular people. Obama understands the issues we care about. Then again, in McCain and Palin's eyes perhaps I am not a "regular person”. I am not a hockey mom and I am not Joe Six Pack. I don't even like beer. I have two masters’ degrees. I guess that would make me one of the "nasty elite". I also fall more on the liberal side of politics. Those in the McCain/Palin campaign just as those in the Bush/Cheney campaign and many on FOX news such as Hannity, O'Reilly, Ann Coulter have brainwashed this country into thinking that those that have more liberal ideas are "BAD people" and only those with conservative beliefs are "good people". How has the country allowed this to happen?

For my mental health, over a year ago, I started turning the station whenever Bush has appeared on my TV. This week, I have gone a step further. I have deleted from my TV programming the so called "fair and balanced" FOX news channel, which in my opinion has been an accomplice in spreading these lies and have contributed to the hatred and racism of this campaign.

I will be voting for Obama and Biden because they believe in unifying our country instead of dividing it. I will be voting for Obama and Biden because they believe in peace, respect, and honor. I will be voting for Obama and Biden because they have both proven to be intelligent candidates who understand regular people and the issues they care about.

Comments (11)

Wonderful post! It just blows my mind that here we are in one of the worst crisis situations in our nation's history, and instead of offering hope and solutions, McCain and Palin are indulging in Hate and dirty politics.

Not only are you a nasty elite, you have a passport. One, no doubt, that your parents got for you along with the luggage before they sent you off to tour Europe...while poor Sarah was back in Alaska working two jobs.

Of all the idiotic things that Palin has said and done, the passport comment still makes my blood boil.

Annie, I totally agree. Regarding FOX, you should try it. I love how my remote skips right over that channel now.

Jill, how could I have forgotten the passport! That and the fact that she can see Russia are two of her most "brilliant" thoughts so far. I have to confess though, my parents did not buy my passport. I did not get my first passport until I was 25 years old. Although I was not working two jobs at the time, I was working one job, which helped to pay for my passport, my luggage, and my airplane ticket to Hong Kong.

Thanks Jane. I read the article this morning. I found it off your widget. Quite telling of McCain's true character in how he responds to the criticism.

It's sad and alarming to see how really dirty and ugly the campaign has become, on the Republican side.

Frank Rich really nailed it in his column in today's New York Times pointing out how McCain and Palin and allowing (even encouraging) their supporters to call Obama a traitor, a murderer and to even demand Obama's head! Truly scary.

Kathy, I tried for a while to try to see both sides, knowing that FOX was not ever fair and balanced but mainly the Republican side, but after this past week, I decided that watching the station was saying it was ok for the hatred to be spewed by so many of the both those working for the station and many of the guests. It is not a huge stand since I am sure that FOX really doesn't care to much about losing me as an audience member but it still made me feel better. Oh, and I love the way the guy from Wisconsin explains his reasons why hs is voting for Obama.

Sandra, thanks for pointing out the Frank Rich column. Yes, he did nail it. I wish I could express my feelings as well as you can when writing. It took me 3 hours to write this and I still am not thrilled with my writing style, but at least I got my point across.

You know, I had a feeling about the passport thing. When Maureen Dowd did that column way back before Charlie Gibson's interview, one of the questions I said should be asked was "When did you get your first passport?" I'm glad others think like I do. BTW - I got my first passport at age 15 though I didn't use it until age 17 on a trip to London and the English countryside that I paid for with money I earned working since the time I was 12 (delivering newspapers, then a coatcheck girl, then working as a file clerk in a law office).

What t-s me off in addition to Fox, are all the Republicans I know that aren't outraged by the actions of their co-party members and their leaders.

Kim, I am so amazed at how "party" and excuses trumps the obvious hatred and racial undertones that took place last week. Our Republican Governor, who is in LOVE with Palin and has called Bush "the best president ever," is once again praising McCain and Palin and apparently has no concerns about what took place last week. http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20081014_Obama_would_destroy_economy_Lingle_says.html

nyc caribbean ragazza, thanks for stopping by! I really believe that Palin is serious when she says that seeing Russia gives her foreign experience. Hey she's been to Hawaii, an exotic foreign place! What more does she need to do?